Development of a Search Task Using Immersive Virtual Reality: Proof-of-Concept Study

Area of Science:

• Neurorehabilitation
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality

Background:

• Serious games enhance motivation and adherence in neurorehabilitation.
• Immersive virtual reality (iVR) offers intuitive interaction and ecological validity for serious games.
• iVR serious games can improve therapeutic outcomes through adaptive feedback and performance metrics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an iVR serious game featuring a visual search task with self-adapting difficulty.
• To assess the game's usability, immersion, and player experience across different user groups.
• To evaluate the game's ability to measure visual exploration behavior and its correlation with hemispatial neglect severity.

Main Methods:

• A two-step development process created an iVR serious game (bird search task).
• The game was tested on healthy young adults (n=21), elderly participants (n=23), and stroke patients with hemispatial neglect (n=11).
• Validated questionnaires assessed usability, side effects, immersion, and game experience; performance was correlated with neglect severity measures.

Main Results:

• High usability ( >4.5/5) and low-intensity side effects ( <1.5/4) were reported across all groups.
• The iVR serious game was perceived as highly motivating and entertaining by all participants.
• Hemispatial neglect patients exhibited increased lateralized search times, correlating with neglect severity.

Conclusions:

• The developed iVR serious game is motivating, entertaining, and immersive.
• Its adaptive difficulty scaling allows use by diverse populations, including those with cognitive impairments.
• Game performance effectively captures visual exploration deficits in hemispatial neglect, correlating with clinical measures.